


The King That Shall Be

by AriWrote



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But still the same, Gen, In which Marx and Xander are two different people, Is the best way I can describe this, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 06:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6412264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriWrote/pseuds/AriWrote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander was not the true Crown Prince of Nohr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The King That Shall Be

Xander was not the true Crown Prince of Nohr.

He had known him once, when Xander was named Marx and he played with the weak child who would be heir to the throne, who still would be, if Marx hadn’t come along. If Marx had not stood still as a statue as the young prince called for someone, anyone to help; watched as the blonde head that matched his bobbed once, twice, three times before it disappeared beneath the waves, Xander might have been many things one day. When it had first happened, when he’d first realized the truth of the situation, he’d tried to shove the blame on to someone else. It was his mother, he thought, who had rooted his feet to the sand with whispered promise of a life where he did not live in the shadow of the crown prince and instead cast his own. It was Xander’s fault, for stealing father’s affection from Marx when he had had his own mother’s love to draw from. It was the servants’ fault, for not catching the two of them as they escaped the castle to visit the beach. No matter how many times he repeated these things to himself, Marx could only accept that it was none other than his fault, for watching his brother drown and doing nothing.

When his feet finally unrooted themselves from the grown, he raced to his mother, tears in his eyes and told her the whole story. He expected a reprimand, maybe even death for watching the crown prince drown and doing nothing. Instead his mother drew him close, a wild look in her eyes and said, “What do you mean Prince Xander is dead? I see him before me now. It was Marx who drowned in the ocean this day. Isn’t that right, my dear Xander?”

Marx watched in horror as something seemed to take over his mother. Was it madness? A demon? Marx did not know. The only thing he could do was nod and mutter that yes, he was Prince Xander and that yes, Marx had been the one who’d drowned in the ocean.

It’s surprisingly easy to take over as Crown Prince Xander of Nohr, Marx finds. Many of the servants have only a base knowledge of what the prince looks like. Xander was a sickly child and spent most of his years bedridden. Only a handful of people have ever laid eyes on the heir to the throne. So people see his golden hair, his eyes so like Garon’s, and hear him introduce himself as Prince Xander and they believe. No one mentions that it’s strange that the once sickly prince has made a miraculous recovery.

It is only those who knew Xander that prove to make the charade difficult. The number of people is small, but even just one of them could ruin everything. However, his mother is nothing if not brilliant and it is not long before she solves this little detail. A doctor who’d once treated the sickly prince throws himself off the highest tower of Castle Krakenburg. A servant who’d delivered food to the prince has an unfortunate accident one day and breaks his neck. The private tutor who’d taught the young boy suddenly decides to take a trip to a far off country without telling anyone of his plans. One by one all who would have known the true prince are picked off in a variety of ways.

When Xander and his mother are cleaning up the mess of the latest victim (a break-in, his mother explains, the poor girl was just in the wrong place at the wrong time), he hears his mother chuckle. He turns around, ignoring the blood that sticks to his fingers, and sees his mother smiling. “We are free, my dearest Xander. She was the last one. All who could point you out as Marx are dead. They are all gone.”

Xander does not know what comes over him when he pulls the knife out of the servant-girl’s chest and says, “No… not everyone is gone.” He blacks out.

He awakens to the knife buried deep in his mother’s chest, her eyes wide in surprise (at what, Xander wonders absently?). He cannot find an ounce of sadness in him as he feels the heat leave Ecatarina’s body and her blood stains his clothes. He was only doing what she wanted, after all. With her death, Marx is finally laid to rest and Prince Xander is reborn from his watery grave.

He returns to the palace in the cover of night and burns the clothes stained with Ecatarina and the servant-girl’s blood. He sleeps in his bed for the first time and does not dream. When word of the mysterious death of King Garon’s concubine and a servant-girl reaches the palace, Xander feigns surprise. A rumor soon starts that the servant-girl was one of King Garon’s mistresses and that Ecatarina had been trying to take out the competition. Xander ignores the whispering maids as he heads towards his piano lessons. He has a new teacher, since it appears his old will not be returning.

When he finally meets face to face with King Garon for the first time since Marx drowned in the ocean that day, he introduces himself as Prince Xander of Nohr. He stares at Garon, almost challenging the man to correct him. His father simply laughs and nods, asking how his sword training is going.

Xander is not the true Crown Prince of Nohr, but he’ll never let anyone know that.

(When people ask him why he swims fine in pools, but seems to flounder in the ocean, he does not tell them of the cold hands he feels on his legs, pulling him down down down to the bottom of the ocean where he belongs.)

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at ariwrote.tumblr.com. Send me prompts or talk to me about headcanons.


End file.
